OBWALDEN
Ask the average international tourist to name a couple of destinations they visited on their first trip to Switzerland, they will in all likelihood name Lucerne and often Interlaken. It’s quite understandable since many tour buses will cross from central Switzerland to or from the Bernese Oberland via the Brünig Pass with these two destinations as a goal. Looking out their train windows, passengers will view picturesque pre-alpine pastoral landscapes along lakes with mountains towering in the background. The most well-known of these are Mt Pilatus which we visited in our spotlight on Unterwalden, and Mt Titlis located in the southeastern part of the Canton of Obwalden. For a quick train ride from Brienz to Sarnen, click here.
The largest winter & summer holiday destination in central Switzerland is Engelberg. Located at the foot of Mt Titlis, the village is the home of the famous Benedictine Monastery founded in 1120. Yes! It is celebrating its 900th birthday this year. Monks still live, work, and teach there. The monastery houses a modern boarding school & two public schools. The Engeberg resort is a year-round paradise for all ages. Hiking, biking, climbing, mountaineering, tobogganing in summer, and in winter sledding, snowboarding, snowshoeing & of course skiing are all available. To top it all off, you can take the world’s first revolving aerial gondola, the Rotair, to Mt Titlis. If you don’t suffer from acrophobia, you must go on the Titlis Cliff Walk and cross the highest suspension bridge in Europe. Finally, for one more fantastic experience, take a ride on the Ice Flyer chair lift over the glacier.
If you enjoy hiking, bicycling, camping & fishing, Obwalden with its great trails & paths is an ideal vacation destination. A popular hike is around the emerald-green Lake of Lungern. Another popular destination, commonly chosen for school children, are Sachseln & Älggi Alp located on the Lake of Sarnen. It’s very scenic and the geographic center of Switzerland.
For those of you interested in Switzerland’s history, a visit to Sarnen, the capital of the Canton of Obwalden should be on your list of places to see. The oldest surviving document recording the foundation of Switzerland , The “Weisse Buch of Sarnen” written in 1468, is kept in the cantonal archives. The town square with its beautifully preserved historic buildings is quite lovely. Parts of the City Hall (Rathaus) date back to 1418.
In closing we invite you to click here for a vocal farewell visit to the Canton of Obwalden.
Checkout the imbedded videos & web sites by clicking on the various highlighted links above.
Ask the average international tourist to name a couple of destinations they visited on their first trip to Switzerland, they will in all likelihood name Lucerne and often Interlaken. It’s quite understandable since many tour buses will cross from central Switzerland to or from the Bernese Oberland via the Brünig Pass with these two destinations as a goal. Looking out their train windows, passengers will view picturesque pre-alpine pastoral landscapes along lakes with mountains towering in the background. The most well-known of these are Mt Pilatus which we visited in our spotlight on Unterwalden, and Mt Titlis located in the southeastern part of the Canton of Obwalden. For a quick train ride from Brienz to Sarnen, click here.
The largest winter & summer holiday destination in central Switzerland is Engelberg. Located at the foot of Mt Titlis, the village is the home of the famous Benedictine Monastery founded in 1120. Yes! It is celebrating its 900th birthday this year. Monks still live, work, and teach there. The monastery houses a modern boarding school & two public schools. The Engeberg resort is a year-round paradise for all ages. Hiking, biking, climbing, mountaineering, tobogganing in summer, and in winter sledding, snowboarding, snowshoeing & of course skiing are all available. To top it all off, you can take the world’s first revolving aerial gondola, the Rotair, to Mt Titlis. If you don’t suffer from acrophobia, you must go on the Titlis Cliff Walk and cross the highest suspension bridge in Europe. Finally, for one more fantastic experience, take a ride on the Ice Flyer chair lift over the glacier.
If you enjoy hiking, bicycling, camping & fishing, Obwalden with its great trails & paths is an ideal vacation destination. A popular hike is around the emerald-green Lake of Lungern. Another popular destination, commonly chosen for school children, are Sachseln & Älggi Alp located on the Lake of Sarnen. It’s very scenic and the geographic center of Switzerland.
For those of you interested in Switzerland’s history, a visit to Sarnen, the capital of the Canton of Obwalden should be on your list of places to see. The oldest surviving document recording the foundation of Switzerland , The “Weisse Buch of Sarnen” written in 1468, is kept in the cantonal archives. The town square with its beautifully preserved historic buildings is quite lovely. Parts of the City Hall (Rathaus) date back to 1418.
In closing we invite you to click here for a vocal farewell visit to the Canton of Obwalden.
Checkout the imbedded videos & web sites by clicking on the various highlighted links above.